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Hair of the Dog offers respite from the Washington Avenue scene. This bar is frequented by downtown locals; it's the kind of place where the bartender will make fun your shot choice and whip you up something tastier, all while razzing the stiletto-ed party girls ducking in just to avoid long bathroom lines at neighboring clubs. He doesn't care how low-cut your top is -- if you aren't here for the sauce, no promises to come back with all your friends will save you from his sarcastic jibes. Don't miss: the awesome "Dead Fat Comedians" wall art by local artist and guerrilla graffiti-ist Peat Wollaeger, the kitschy signage and a rousing game of Big Buck Hunter.

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Half & Half serves both breakfast and lunch, but the breakfast menu here - available throughout the day - is unquestionably the star, as owner Mike Randolph (who opened the midtown pizzeria the Good Pie) gives the Most Important Meal of the Day a contemporary bistro treatment. You can pair your eggs with pork belly; the steak in your steak and eggs is a hanger steak. Coffee service, featuring beans from Kaldi's, is extraordinary, from the "ordinary" drip brew to grounds filtered through cloth so as to capture the maximum amount of their essential oils.

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Halfway Haus is a new bar and venue in the historic South Carondelet neighborhood. The bar is so named because it's at the midpoint between the owners' other properties, The Patch Tavern and the Temtor. Halfway Haus has Magic Hat, Pabst and the obligatory Schlafly on tap, as well as a wine list curated by A. Bommarito Wines. There's no kitchen on site, but they'll let you order food in from nearby Kim's Pizza. The long room is pretty spare, but the place comes alive when the bands, duos and solo acoustic acts get a-strummin'. If the evening is fine, the bartender will throw open the garage door that separates the bar area from the patio.